The making of an un-American

I'm sure you've heard about the case of Paul Stephens, the San Marcos, Texas cop who stopped a couple for speeding only to learn that their dog was dying in the back seat and they were racing to get from San Marcos to an emergency veterinary clinic in New Braunfels, something under 20 miles away. Showing absolutely no sympathy - "It's just a dog. You can buy another one." - Stephens kept the couple there for 20 minutes, some of which time he spent chatting with two other cops who arrived on the scene. And during which time the dog died.

Now, just to make sure it's clear and contrary to almost all the defenses of the cop I've seen, the issue here isn't that Stephens stopped them. It's what he did after he stopped them, which went beyond callousness and into the realm of emotional cruelty.

There were calls for the cop to be fired or otherwise disciplined (my favorite was the proposal that he be forced to do community service at an animal shelter) but the outcome was that he was "reprimanded" by being required to watch the video of the incident while being "counseled" on how he could have handled it better. And police have dismissed the speeding ticket. BFD, frankly.

The story has shifted somewhat since the beginning: Instead of going "over 100 miles per hour," it's now said the couple was doing 95; instead of them being held for 15 minutes, the time has stretched to 20 minutes. Minor changes perhaps, but another is more significant: Police Chief Howard Williams said

he believed his officer's assessment that the dog was not alive when he pulled over Michael Gonzalez....

“This dog was already dead,” Williams said. “That is one of the reasons the officers showed no urgency. Nothing the officers did or said caused this dog to die.”

That is bullshit. The video released by the San Marcos police shows Stephens looking into the back seat of Gonzalez's car with his flashlight - but at no point does he say anything about the dog being dead or appearing dead and he did not examine the dog. It was utterly impossible for him to reasonably conclude the dog was dead. So if he did in fact decide from what was little more than a cursory glance in the dark that the dog was dead, he's an idiot. But I think a more likely explanation is that he just didn't give a damn if the dog was alive or dead and this after-the-fact claim is just cheap CYA.

But that CYA is just the point here. Williams called it "a rookie mistake" but I think that's more bullshit. I don't think it was a "rookie" mistake and I don't think it was a rookie "mistake." I don't think it was a mistake at all. I think, rather, that it's exactly what is to be expected when a cop gets their ego bruised, in this case by the fact that the car didn't stop at once. Stephens was going to prove that he was the boss, that he was in charge, that he could make them do whatever he wanted, including punishing them for implicitly challenging him by making them stand by while their pet suffered and died.

The couple pleaded with Stephens to allow them to get the dog to the clinic and then turn themselves in later, or to let Gonzalez stay and get his speeding ticket while Hernandez completed the trip alone.

No and no. No alternatives, no sympathy, no offer of help. They were going to sit there until he was damn good and ready to let them go. Because he was the cop and they were just - just not cops. So they had to just shut up and do what he told them. Because, goddam it, his ego was at stake and no damn crap like a dying family pet was going to keep him from showing that he had the power.

The tragedy of police work is that all too often the kind of person who is attracted to it is exactly the kind of person who shouldn't be doing it.

Oh, and don't give me any of the "they risk their lives every day" crap; when it comes to dangerous jobs, cops don't even make the top 10.

Footnote: The fact is, when you're a cop, the rules are different. If they exist at all. Continuing on the subject of dogs, what do you think would happen to you if you left your dog in your car for 13 hours until well after its brain fried because you "forgot" it was there? If you were a cop, you'd be acquitted of animal cruelty. Not only acquitted, you'd be interviewed by the local media to whine about how you were led into "a modern heart of darkness" by a misdemeanor charge and to express your deep shock at

the way the sheriff and his publicity team handled the whole thing - holding a national news conference on the arrest, publicly disgracing the veteran sergeant and stonewalling his defense team on information nearly every step of the way.

You'd get to have it described as an "ordeal." Because really - the police humiliating the accused and stonewalling the defense? Who ever heard of such a thing?

And what do you think would happen to you if you shot at a dog without any indication in the record that the dog was threatening you? If you were a cop, you'd get to "voluntarily resign" with a $75,000 cash payment, a clean record, and enough months added to your time of service to make you eligible for a pension.

I expect that later on we'll get to how the rules are different in the case of people - tasers aren't the only issue in that case. Even murder can be forgiven - if you're a cop.

Footnote to the footnote: I will be completely fair. Regarding the first incident in the footnote, the cop in question

said the experience has changed the way he looks at police work and suspects on the street.

On traffic stops and interactions with the public, he said, the thought of being a defendant for a year is fresh on his mind.

"I certainly got an education of what it's like to be in the defendant's seat," he said, "and a little bit of what a defendant's feeling."

I suspect that's an experience from which a hell of a lot of cops would benefit - and which a good number deserve to have.